Toward a Bibliography of Religion in the Midwest

I've written previously about recent efforts to bring renewed scholarly attention to the Midwest. In the time since then, I've often wondered: what would a history of religious life in the Midwest look like? What already published books and articles would need to be considered and incorporated?

To my knowledge, the most complete attempt to probe what is distinct about religion in the Midwest is Religion & Public Life in the Midwest: America's Common Denominator? (2004).As part of AltaMira's Religion by Region Series, editors Philip Barlow and Mark Silk put together a series of fascinating essays covering a range of topics: the Midwest as the United States writ small, the Midwest's enduring Methodist tinge, its high concentration of Lutherans, its distinct brand of Catholicism (more innovative and ethnically diverse), Chicago (need I say more?), the diversity of religious affiliations brought about by recent changes in immigration patterns, and the contrast between urban, suburban, and rural forms of religious expression. While the essays were insightful, they were also rather short and suggestive. If you believe that considering the Midwest as a region is a useful enterprise, there is plenty of work to be done.

To that end, I'd like your help developing a working bibliography. I am interested here in two things: first, what books or articles, if any, have been framed distinctively as a study of religion (or of a specific religion, religious group, or religious leader) in the Midwest. And second, among the many books or articles that are set in the Midwest but that do not purport to be studying the Midwest as a region, which would be helpful to any attempt to offer a synthesis of the history of religious life in the Midwest?

In getting this list started, I've relied on the same regional definition as Barlow and Silk in their edited volume. That is, I've recognized that the definition for what counts as "Midwest" is very much contested, and then I've gone ahead and included the states you see outlined on the book cover to the left.

My list has plenty of gaps (hardly any pre-1970 works, nothing featuring Canada, not enough attention to various American Indian nations, etc.), which is why I'd love your help. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments. I should also point out that although there are tons of great and useful articles in the various Midwestern state historical journals, for the most part with this list I've set those aside. But if you know of a particularly great article, please let me know.

With that said, here is my attempt to get a working bibliography started, with items listed in reverse chronological order.

Update: I've had a couple people reach out to me via email and twitter and offer suggestions to the list. You can find me on twitter @p_emory or email me (my gmail address is paul.putz) if you'd like. Any additions that I make to this list will be marked with an *.

Randall Balmer, “The Tragedy of Billy Sunday: The Allure of Populism and the Peril of Anachronism.” The Annals of Iowa 105 (Fall 1996)* [note: this article was part of a special edition of The Annals of Iowa that featured articles discussing Billy Sunday with a Midwestern context/perspective]

Comments

UW-Madison's Religious Studies Program is launching a new research project, "Lived Religion in Wisconsin," covering the historical and contemporary as well as local and global Wisconsin. Beginning with undergraduate field projects modeled somewhat on the Pluralism Project, we aim to expand to collaborate with graduate research and scholars elsewhere. We'd love to hear from others with similar projects, bibliographical or research suggestions, etc. Contact Dr. Corrie Norman, cenorman@wisc.edu

Randall Balmer frames the following article about Billy Sunday by trying to describe the changing "place" of the Midwest in American culture. “The Tragedy of Billy Sunday: The Allure of Populism and the Peril of Anachronism.” The Annals of Iowa, LLV (Fall 1996), 369‐373.

Also, my book does not think about religion and region, but takes place in the American Midwest and deals with the history of Midwestern Mormons (RLDS). David J.Howlett, Kirtland Temple: The Biography of a Shared Mormon Sacred Space (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014). Another book that is helpful is Craig S. Campbell, Visions of the New Jerusalem: Mormon Faction Interpretations of Independence, Missouri (University of Tennessee Press, 2004).

This is great - thanks, Paul! I’m looking forward to checking out sources that you’ve mentioned and seeing what else others add. I have a few ideas to share.

First, I wanted to highlight a recent article that isn't focused as much on religion but offers a thoughtful discussion on the ways that “The Midwest” has been defined—historically, geographically, materially—at times overlooking Native American polities: Doug Kiel, “Untaming the Mild Frontier: In Search of New Midwestern Histories,” Middle West Review 1.1, 9-38 (Fall 2014). http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2502737

Dawn Marsh at Purdue University has been working on Native American history and Indian removal in the Old Northwest. See Marsh, A Lenape among the Quakers: The Life of Hannah Freeman (Nebraska, 2014) [http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Lenape-among-the-Quakers,675832.aspx] and “Old Friends in New Territories: Delawares and Quakers in the Old Northwest Territory,” in Contested Territories: Native Americans and Non-Natives in the Lower Great Lakes, 1700-1850 (Michigan State, 2012). http://msupress.org/books/book/?id=50-1D0-25FE

Discussions of Native American revitalization movements are important; in addition to the sources you’ve listed on the Spirit Dances and the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa, there’s Greg Dowd’s A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815 (Johns Hopkins, 1993). https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/spirited-resistance

Focusing more on Indigenous spiritual traditions themselves, Lawrence Gross has recently published a book on Anishinaabe religion, Anishinaabe Ways of Knowing and Being (Ashgate, 2014). I highly recommend it! (It’s a bit pricy so request it for your libraries!) http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472417343

On the western edge of the Midwest you’re getting into the Plains/Western region, but it’s worth mentioning a couple of relevant projects. Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies has publications that discuss religion: http://www.unl.edu/plains/publications/publications.shtml. The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas has a great "Religion in Kansas" Project that features archival materials: http://ksreligion.omeka.net.

David and Sarah, thanks so much for the great additions. I've added them to the list. Ya'll are definitely helping to fill in my historiographical blind spots. Also, it's great to hear about the projects at Nebraska, Kansas, and Wisconsin!

John Wigger, "Ohio Gospel: Methodism in Early Ohio," in The Center of a Great Empire: The Ohio Country in the Early Republic, ed. by Andrew R. L. Cayton and Stuart D. Hobbs (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2005).

Paul, thanks so much for making this a cooperative effort. This will be of benefit to many of us. Although there is contention about whether or not Missouri is properly considered Midwest, I'd like to suggest two more books: Aaron Ketchell's Holy Hills of the Ozarks: Religion and Tourism in Branson, Missouri (Johns Hopkins, 2007) and Bethany Moreton's To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise (Harvard, 2010). Branson, MO is viewed as a site to experience "old-time religion" for the scores of Midwestern tourists who make a yearly pilgrimage there (including my parents!) The early days of the Wal-Mart story is also instructive about Evangelical populism and commerce in the Midwest. I know I'll have more to suggest later!

More great recommendations, thanks all! I've added them to the list. Barton, I couldn't find the existence of a book titled _The American Midwest: Religion_ anywhere. I did a few google searches, checked the Ohio State UP website, and Amazon, but nothing turned up. Do you have a link you could point me towards?

The work of William Warren Sweet would be helpful for the migration of American religious groups into the Midwest, especially Indiana and Ohio. He edited a 4 volume documentary history of "Religion on the American Frontier" (a volume each for Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists).

Also wrote:

A History of the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church from Its Organization, in 1844 to the Present (https://books.google.com/books?id=gXHUAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22William+Warren+Sweet%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GMS-VNWgDMmKsQSf14LYDg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Circuit-rider Days in Indiana(https://books.google.com/books?id=dnwsAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor%3A%22William%20Warren%20Sweet%22&pg=PP4#v=onepage&q&f=false)

The correct citation for those three encyclopedia articles by Brian C. Wilson that Barton referred to is: Richard Sisson, Christian K. Zacher, and Andrew Cayton (eds.). The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. (My bad, not Barton's.) The Encyclopedia has an excellent section on religion in the Midwest edited by Peter Williams. Thanks to Barton Price for the initial post, and thanks to Paul Putz for creating this bibliography!

Harris, Michael W. The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church. New York, Oxford UP 1992.

Kostarelos, Frances. Feeling the Spirit: Faith and Hope in an Evangelical Storefront Church. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. [An ethnography of a black church on Chicago's West Side]

Drake, St. Clair and Horace R. Cayton. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1945. [Which drew heavily from Drake's earlier work: Drake, St. Clair. “Churches and Voluntary Associations in the Chicago Negro Community” Chicago: 1940]

Sounds great. I'll keep tabs on the comment page so I can keep the list updated. Good call on Seager's book. Excellent example of how focusing on the Midwest need not preclude the transnational or global.